Southeast Manitoba to be hit by blizzard Sunday night

Up to 30 cm of snow, high winds expected in southern Manitoba

If Manitoba’s brutal, seemingly never-ending winter hasn’t completely crushed your dreams of summer ever arriving, it’s going to take one more crack at it Sunday night.

Environment Canada issued a winter storm watch for much of southeastern Manitoba including Winnipeg. (Environment Canada)

Southeast Manitoba is in the crosshairs of what could be a major snow storm, set to arrive overnight on Sunday and into Monday.

Environment Canada issued a winter storm watch for the City of Winnipeg and much of the southeast part of the province Sunday afternoon and later cancelled it. Shortly after, it issued blizzard and snowfall warnings for southeastern Manitoba, excluding Winnipeg.

“[It’s] one of those dreaded Colorado lows, which is still just organizing down in the Utah-Arizona area, so it hasn’t even really developed yet,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Mike McDonald. “But we’re expecting some explosive, rapid development later on today.”

The forecast calls for 20 to 25 centimetres of snow in southeastern Manitoba, with about five to 10 cm in Winnipeg and about five cm predicted for Brandon.

But McDonald said the system could dump anywhere from five to 30 centimetres of snow.

“Until it’s formed, it’s still almost a guessing game,” said McDonald. “We’re basing a lot of our knowledge and interpretation on computer models right now, and even the various computer models are differing on the location of the snow.”

He said snow will be coupled with strong winds gusting 70 to 80 kilometres per hour in the Red River Valley.

Environment Canada's forecast said blizzard conditions are possible on Monday, and people in the area should prepare for the weather.

“If people have any travel east, west or south, you want to take careful attention to the forecast because there's going to be a widespread snow fall,” said McDonald. “You're not going to really escape it by going any direction from this storm.”